Whenever Mo Qiu faced a troublesome enemy, she came up with a plan tailored specifically to that person—the more detailed, the better. She’d done the whole “win a man over” thing in her previous life, but this was her first time approaching it from a woman’s perspective.

Even though Bai Chen was a pure-hearted virgin, Mo Qiu wasn’t about to let her guard down.

After two days of preparation over the weekend, she finally had all the materials she needed. On Sunday night, she began making her secret weapon.

In the cramped kitchen, the girl set a frying pan on the stove, lit the burner, heated the pan, and poured in the oil—all in one smooth motion.

Next came the main event.

First, she added the three aromatics: scallions, ginger, and garlic. Soon, the hot oil in the pan was fragrant.

Next went in a giant chicken leg. Even after living through two lifetimes, Mo Qiu had never eaten one this big. However she looked at it, Bai Chen was getting a ridiculously good deal.

Then she sliced an onion and tossed it into the pan.

After that came the tomato. Mo Qiu held it in her hand and inspected it for a moment. Cutting it with a knife seemed like too much trouble, so she simply pulled it apart with her bare hands and tossed it into the pan. Of course, she’d carefully washed both her hands and the tomato first.

Once all the ingredients were in, Mo Qiu poured water from the kettle into the pan. Her vacant eyes reflected the bubbling brown broth.

The girl sniffed and realized there was a problem: it didn’t smell fragrant enough. Looking good wasn’t nearly enough.

She took out some chili paste and thirteen-spice seasoning, then poured both into the pan. In an instant, a pungent aroma filled the kitchen.

Mo Qiu took a deep breath, and her cheeks grew slightly flushed.

Bai Chen was getting off way too easy. She was even making him food this good.

“That smells amazing. What is it?”

“What are you doing here?”

Just as she was about to put the lid on the pan, Mo Qiu spotted the little black goat floating behind her. The Monster Tamer came and went without a trace, which put her on guard.

Her face showed no emotion, and there wasn’t a glimmer of light in her deep-sea eyes. The Monster Tamer didn’t suspect a thing about her attitude.

“I’m here to see how everyone’s doing, of course.” The Monster Tamer draped itself over the girl’s shoulder and yawned lazily. “Besides delivering messages, part of my job is keeping an eye on how you’re all doing.”

You mean keeping tabs on us, right?

Mo Qiu silently stirred the mixture in the pan, waiting for the brown broth to reduce.

“Are you making that for yourself?”

“I’m using it to tempt humans,” Mo Qiu replied. “When humans enjoy good food, they always let their guard down. That’s the perfect time to strike.”

Actually, she was making lunch for Bai Chen.

She’d once read a timeless saying: If you want to win a man over, start by winning over his stomach!

If that was really all it took, then it was far too easy. When it came to cooking, Mo Qiu had absolute confidence in herself.

Whenever her parents fought and neither of them came home, Mo Qiu would make do with ingredients in the fridge that were about to go bad, cooking for herself for half a month. She summed up her cooking in one sentence: “A feast for the eyes, the nose, and the taste buds!”

Once the broth had reduced enough, Mo Qiu took the final step and poured all the cooled rice into the pan.

When the rice had soaked up all the broth, a pot of delicious rice soup was ready!

“That smells amazing. I’ve never tried human food before.”

The Monster Tamer watched Mo Qiu serve herself a bowl and couldn’t help wagging its tail.

“If you want some, I can share.”

“Sure!”

The Monster Tamer landed on the table and watched as rice soup was poured into the bowl in front of it. It eagerly plunged its face into the bowl and gobbled it down.

The very next second, the Monster Tamer froze. The hand gripping the bowl began to tremble violently.

With a thud, the little black goat fell off the table and writhed on the floor.

“So this is what human food tastes like?”

Mo Qiu didn’t look at it. She just kept eating. “Well?”

“The food humans like is really hard to understand.”

“That’s because you’re a monster.”

“Um… Mo Qiu, I just remembered I have something to do. I’d better go.”

The Monster Tamer struggled to get back up. After failing several times, it vanished in a wisp of black smoke.

Mo Qiu looked at the rice soup in front of her, took a big spoonful, and couldn’t help narrowing her unruffled eyes.

“Yep. That’s the taste.”

It’d been a whole lifetime since I last made rice soup, but my cooking hasn’t gotten any worse.

The girl ate faster and faster. This was exactly the taste she’d been looking for, and before long, she’d finished the whole bowl.

That doesn’t seem like quite enough…

Her gaze drifted to the pot, and she fell silent for a long moment. The fragrant brown rice soup was calling to her, tempting her into paradise.

There’s still this much left. One more bowl won’t hurt.

Mo Qiu ran her little pink tongue over her lips.

The next day, Mo Qiu carefully reheated the rice soup, packed it into a neat lunchbox, and set off for school.

Monday morning. The sun had just risen. Wind Chime City hadn’t fully woken up yet, but plenty of students were already hurrying along.

If Bai Chen hadn’t gone to Fengling Middle School, Mo Qiu wouldn’t have gone out of her way to transfer there.

Compared to the school in her hometown, the campus was bigger and had more students. Every morning, students crowded the school gates. Plenty of breakfast vendors risked getting chased away to do business there, and even when they were warned, they simply moved a little farther from the entrance.

“Steamed buns! Homemade steamed buns!”

“Fried noodles and rice noodles! Cheap and delicious!”

“Pork offal congee, lean pork congee, egg congee!”

It was just as lively inside the school. The poor high schoolers had to get there early for morning classes.

“This problem’s a little tricky, everyone. I’ll give you some time, then I’ll call on someone to answer.”

At the front of the classroom, the teacher tapped the blackboard. Below, the students bent over their work. Of course, some weren’t paying attention at all. Mo Qiu was one of them.

High school math was a little too easy for a deceiver like her. While everyone else was still wrestling with the formulas, she’d already worked out the answer and written it on her scratch paper.

Maybe because her seat was near the corner, the teacher never paid any attention to the girl. When calling on students, the teacher always picked either the class ace or the class dunce.

Mo Qiu didn’t want to stand out, so she deliberately kept her grades around the middle of the class. At school, she usually kept her head down, trying not to meet anyone’s fish eyes with her own. She almost never talked to anyone, either.

When class ended, the quiet classroom came alive again.

They’re all laughing and running around, but not one of them notices me.

That suited Mo Qiu perfectly. She loved being the invisible girl in class.

If nobody paid attention to her, nobody would notice her watching someone else. That someone was her classmate, Bai Chen.

Bai Chen sat far away from Mo Qiu, and in a seat farther toward the front. Even he hadn’t noticed that the girl he’d once saved was sitting in the classroom.

To catch Bai Chen’s attention, Mo Qiu had put some thought into her appearance before leaving home. The school uniform consisted of a white top and a black, knee-length skirt. Mo Qiu had underestimated her own size when choosing her uniform, so the top fit snugly, making her two Big Bais stand out.

Today, she’d also made a point of wearing tights. She’d chosen black rather than white. If Bai Chen didn’t like them, she could try the other color next time.

During the break, Mo Qiu got up and walked lightly toward Bai Chen’s seat.

She didn’t go up to him right away. Instead, she stood in the hallway with her back against the wall and listened to him talk.

“Lao Zhu, I heard you got a new girlfriend?” That was Bai Chen’s voice.

“Yeah. Lily, from the class next door.”

“Oh, her. She’s pretty cute.”

“Why are you jealous? Didn’t someone confess to you, too?”

At that, Mo Qiu froze for a moment. She hadn’t expected to have a rival. She pursed her lips slightly and twirled a lock of black hair around her finger.

“You mean those first-year girls? They just like the way I look when I play basketball. They don’t really like me.”

“Damn, I didn’t know you were so honorable.”

“For it to count as real romantic luck, she has to be my type.”

Bai Chen’s type?

Mo Qiu stopped twirling her hair and shifted position, pressing both her chest and her ear against the wall.

“Well, I think her face should be cute.”

Cute? I’d say I’m one of the cutest girls my age.

Except for my fish eyes. I hate them, but there’s nothing I can do about them.

“And she should be cheerful. If she’s giving off negative vibes all day, I’m not going to feel great either.”

Cheerful? That’s the complete opposite of me!

Of course a popular guy would prefer a cheerful popular girl over a lifeless nobody.

“And last, but most important—she has to be proactive. If we’re dating, she shouldn’t bottle up the things that upset her. I really like it when a girl takes the initiative.”

Proactive? Looks like I still have a chance.

Remembering the lunchbox in her bag, Mo Qiu quickly left.

“Didn’t know you were so picky. Most of your requirements are about personality,” Lao Zhu teased.

There was actually one more requirement about looks, but Bai Chen was too embarrassed to say it out loud.

It’d be even better if she had eyes with no highlights. Every time he saw eyes like that, he got so excited he went crazy!

Too bad you could basically only find eyes like that in anime. If I ever met someone like that in real life, I’d…

“Bai Chen.”

A familiar voice interrupted them. Bai Chen turned around and held his breath.

More than being surprised that a girl had come up to him, what really caught his attention was—

There she was: a girl with eyes that had no highlights!